First of all I left the lights on at a store, killed the battery I got a jump and was gonna drive the car 25 - 30 miles to charge the battery back up, was driving on the freeway, well after about 10 miles the temp was reading hot, then normal then hot again, and then the power dropped, I could not go faster then 50 mph, I was trying to make it to the next exit, then the car just died, pulled off the road lifted the hood, and steam was comming out, had car towed home, I heard that when this car gets hot the computer would shut things down and that could be the cause of power loss, I changed the thermostat, and noticed the radiater cap was rusted up which may be why the resivoir was allways full. Any truth to the computer shuting down componants and caused the power loss, or do you think I blew a gasket, no water in oil.

Today I replaced the thermostat, and radiator cap refilled radiater w/coolant, started car, engine shakes has a tick and the service engine light is on.
engine temperture gauge read hot again, fan's came on but the temperture never went down. replaced water pump a few months ago, its not howling or loosing any water from the drip whole, but, does that mean it's a good water puimp? how hard is it to do the hg on these?
Anyone do one on the 3800 series 2 engine, is it better to buy the head gasket set or just the head gasket?
should I be worried about a cracked head?
allthough there is no water in the oil, no steam coming out the engine or tail pipe.

after filling radiater and resivoir,before it got hot the resivoir started leaking coolant out the overfill whole, is that water pump or head gasket?
Thanks

Welcome to the site first off.

Have you seen leaks on the Ground ?

whats what "SES" light code ? that would be helpful

when it was broke down last night, I tried to fill the radiater, and it just went through and out the bottom of radiater close to lower hose, but today it held coolant, but it backed up through resivoir and out the overfill whole, I don't have a code reader, and afraid to drive it, I emailed a couple mobil mechanics to get a price on reading my codes. Thanks for the welcome.

Getting your DTC codes read shouldn't cost you anything.

Most parts stores will have a scanner and will do it for free.

Has your coolant system been bled properly?

No I just fired it up soon as I filled the radiater and resivoir. One mobil mechanic told me too fill the system back up and let it set overnight with the resivoir cap off, and that should bleed it. is that right? he said just the resivoir cap and not the radiater cap.

hmmm, I never heard of that but if thats true I might try that but I wanna wait till somebody chimes in on that part.

Yea I did a search also on bleeding the system and now I know what that brass bolt is on top of the tstat is for, the mechanic is gonna come by tomorrow with a obd2 reader and hook it up, and also bring buy a bleeding tool, I would take it to autozone but its to far to drive to get the codes read.
also I had to replace the battery, do I have to run the car for a while so the computer relearns all the componants, or would I get the right codes tomorrow for the ses light flashing now, so far I only ran it for about 20-25 min before it got hot again.

You don't need a tool to bleed the coolant, like you said its the screw on top of the tstat. You just open it up and let the car run until coolant comes out the bleeder, then close it off.

You will need to run the car to get the codes to reappear after disconnecting your battery, but you said it started up and the check engine light was already on, so I assume you can just fire her up to get the DTC to be set.

Thanks Gentlemen I will keep you posted.

Well bled the system, ran about a half hour, doesn't over heat, but I think I screwed something up when it got hot before on the road, the engine idles rough, and when I rev the the engine to 3-4000 rpm,'s, it misses heavely, like a air leak somehwere, check engine light still on, the mobil mechanic couldn't make it over tonight with the code reader. don't want to chance driving to autozone, so will wait til tomorrow, when he can make it.

Good luck with it,

just buy a aeroforce scanner and make it 100000x times easier on yourself.

I was hoping someone ran into the same overheating problem and had these symptoms and give me info on what probs had to be fixed,but I know could be a variety of problems so I will get it scanned and go from there.
If it was a head gasket, wouldn't there be coolant in the oil, or steam coming from engine or tail pipe, I have none of those symtoms.

My car was overheating and dropping back down on the highway a week and a half ago. I turned on the heater and no heat came out, so I figured it was low on/out of coolant. I opened it up a few hours after getting it home and, sure enough, I was almost out. I know I have a leak somewhere because it still runs low after about a week. I have reason to believe its somewhere on the Rad or somewhere I can't see because I put baby powder all over my engine and ran it around for a few blocks but I couldn't see any leaks.

If it was leaking into the oil, the oil on the dipstick would come out a milky color.

I got the scaneer, and it read as follows:
1 of 2 -
code P0303, and undernieth code it says Cyldinder #3 Misfire

2 of 2- Same
code P0303, and undernieth code it says Cyldinder #3 Misfire
what is that.
Thanks

You have a misfire in cylinder 3. It isn't igniting when it's supposed to.

Change the wire and plugs.